Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The historical development of astronomical spectroscopes and spectrographs
- 2 The theory of spectroscopes and spectrographs
- 3 High resolution spectrographs
- 4 Solar spectrographs and the history of solar spectroscopy
- 5 Objective prism spectrographs
- 6 Ultraviolet and nebular spectroscopy
- 7 Multi-object spectrographs
- 8 Ten pioneering spectrographs of the late twentieth century
- Figure sources and acknowledgements
- Name index
- Subject index
6 - Ultraviolet and nebular spectroscopy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 The historical development of astronomical spectroscopes and spectrographs
- 2 The theory of spectroscopes and spectrographs
- 3 High resolution spectrographs
- 4 Solar spectrographs and the history of solar spectroscopy
- 5 Objective prism spectrographs
- 6 Ultraviolet and nebular spectroscopy
- 7 Multi-object spectrographs
- 8 Ten pioneering spectrographs of the late twentieth century
- Figure sources and acknowledgements
- Name index
- Subject index
Summary
ULTRAVIOLET AND NEBULAR SPECTROSCOPY
Henry Draper and William Huggins, pioneers in ultraviolet stellar spectroscopy
Observational studies of the near ultraviolet region of stellar spectra have a long history, which goes back to the early days of stellar spectrum photography. The very first spectrum ever recorded by photography was by Henry Draper in 1872. He used his 28-inch reflector and a spectrograph with a quartz prism, and the then relatively new innovation of a dry emulsion glass plate. He noted:
In the photographs of the spectrum of Vega there are eleven lines, only two of which are certainly accounted for, two more may be calcium, the remaining seven, though bearing a most suspicious resemblance to the hydrogen lines in their general characters, are as yet not identified.
The key to Draper's success was in part his use of the new dry plates, which were so much more convenient than the wet collodion plates used previously in astronomical photography. But also his use of a silvered-glass reflecting telescope and a spectrograph with a quartz prism allowed him not only to go below the approximately 400 nm wavelength limit of the human eye, but below the approximately 380 nm limit for the transmission of flint glass used in the lenses of achromatic refractors.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Astronomical Spectrographs and their History , pp. 162 - 183Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009